President Biden is determined in electrifying America's auto fleet electric. But the math behind a greener future is harder than it seems as it involves half of all vehicles sold in 2030 to be electric. The President will attempt to get carmakers to commit to reaching at least 40 percent by then, with the potential to rise to 50 percent with the help of generous federal investment.
A Battle On Every Front
The voluntary pledge that is being negotiated highlights the challenge the White House faces on its quest to translate the president's bold rhetoric into reality. With UN climate negotiations just around the corner, the Biden administration is struggling on transforming a sector that is the US' biggest driver of carbon emissions. To reverse the course after four years of environmental rollbacks, it needs to do much more than write new rules as each new policy faces both political and legal obstacles. The administration also needs to secure an agreement with the nation's largest auto union, the United Auto Workers, to significantly boost sales of electric vehicles.
Lack Of Charging Infrastructure
At the moment, there are only 100,000 public charging outlets across the nation, out of which about 18,000 arecapable of rapid fill-ups. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats and Republicans sealed a deal providing $7.5 billion for the charging infrastructure of highways, which is only half of the figure now president Biden initially called for. Funding for zero-emissions buses was also cut to $2.5 billion.
Range Anxiety
Current models are limited range-wise with the typical range of 250 to 300 miles. Tesla TSLA is leading the race with its Tesla Model S Long Range of 405 miles. But the EV pioneer is developing a structural battery with tabless cells to address range anxiety. The new technology behind Tesla's in-house battery production will improve the range by 16%, increase energy capacity five times and make batteries six times more powerful. Unfortunately, it will take a while before this revolutionary battery that will enable affordable EVs sees the light of day as Musk revealed it's at least three years away from production when announcing it last September.
Solar Power
Electrifying US' auto fleet is critical to making the United States carbon neutral by 2050 but it is the renewable energy equation that holds the key. As the top-selling U.S. vehicles continue to be light trucks, the normal next step is to bring solar power to the table and Worksport Ltd WKSP did exactly that with its TerraVis solar fusion. Its solar-powered tonneau covers that will both generate and store energy have already been picked by Atlis Motor Vehicles and Hercules Electric Vehicles who are configuring this revolutionary technology for their upcoming all-electric pickups.
The output of this ground-breaking tonneau cover delivers 30% of the power needed for an average daily commute under optimal conditions or in mile-terms, 12 to 15 miles. This well-established company is also developing an extension of this line, TerraVIs COR which will be a standalone product available to everyone who wants remove power – and that is pretty much anyone.
Regulators In Action
White House officials and Democratic lawmakers are working on legislation to ensure Stellantis STLA contributes to funding the EV revolution through the $1 billion in penalties it owes the U.S. government for not meeting federal mileage standards. As for the agenda of the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department, there will be a proposal to make tailpipe emission standards for cars and light trucks models between 2023 and 2026 even stricter. All in all, there are many battles to be fought with the one most important one being the one against time.
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